


Acting on the Urges

by rhodrymavelyne



Category: Shiki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 07:01:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18089645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: Summary: Sunako finds herself attacking Yuzuki-san, the local librarian, and adjusting to his resurrection. She doesn’t like every okiagari who rises, even if she’s trying to. Fortunately, she has Tatsumi to temper her idealism.





	Acting on the Urges

**Author's Note:**

> This happens back when the Kirishiki were first in the village, not long after the shiki killed Takami and Takami’s family disappeared. One of his sons ended up being a snack for Yuzuki-san.
> 
> Warning, there are children being preyed upon by shiki in this story and a suggestion that Yuzuki-san made have had pediophilic tendencies, although he tried hard to suppress them in life. Undeath is releasing some of his repression. This may trigger some. I think it’s triggering Sunako, although she’s also trying to deny it. After all, she was once the child victim of a shiki. 
> 
> Yuzuki’s timeline and death were hard to establish since there’s a longer lag between when he’s mortal, sick, and glances at Masao and when he rises as a shiki. The woman temping for him at the library claimed he wasn’t dead, he’d just quit his job. I decided to have this little scene with Sunako visiting to explain how he had died, but it wasn’t common knowledge. 
> 
> This takes place in the same universe as my multi-parter, More than a Jinrou. 
> 
> I don't own Shiki, but it often owns me...

“Hello, can I help you, ojou-chan?” The man had a kindly smile. Sunako had a weakness for the blood of the tender-hearted. It was almost as if their goodness, their warmth washed through her small body, making her a little larger and more alive. 

These were the people who’d be missed, whom she herself might mourn for. It was hard to hesitate when she’d already taken so many. 

Why hesitate? This man might have a kind smile, but there was a light in his dark eyes, a hungry light. It reminded Sunako of the first shiki she’d ever met, the stranger whom her father’s friend had brought into her home. 

He’d looked at her with the same eyes, that man. Sunako thought she’d come to understand such hunger, the emptiness, the yearning for something she no longer possessed. An emptiness which could only be filled by a human being’s life. 

This man reaching out for her was a human. Plus, he’d called her “ojou-chan”. Did she really need an excuse? 

Sunako leaped at his neck, fangs popping out right when the human closed in on her. He gasped when her teeth touched his neck, tearing flesh. The gasp turned into a groan when she started drinking. 

Many humans enjoyed being bitten. This man was one of them. He reached out with blind, seeking hands for the top of her head. He smoothed out her hair in one, flailing moment before toppling to the ground.   
Sunako clung to his coat, letting him shield her when he fell. She lifted her head to glance down at the man, lying on the road. “Why do I think you’ll rise, Yuzuki-san?”

It turned out he did. Sunako visited him several times before he died. The last night he’d had a visitor to his home. 

“Oh!” The woman clasped her hands to her cheeks, gazed down at Sunako in mortification. What was a little girl doing with the local librarian at this hour?

“Yuzuki-san was giving me some lessons on some of the difficult words in a few books I checked out from the library.” Sunako smiled with utter innocence at this baffled woman. She was exactly the sort the little vampire would have bitten, only Sunako was still full of the librarian’s blood. “It was very nice of him since he’s quitting his job.”

“Quitting his job? Oh, no!” The woman was easily distracted by this fact. “This means there will be no one to look after the library.”

“I’m sure you or someone else will do a good job. Poor Yuzuki-san is so tired. He’s in no condition to work at the library.” This much was true. Sunako wasn’t sure if Yuzuki-san was even alive after her last meal. “He needs this vacation.”

“This flux that going around is starting to scare me,” the woman muttered, turning her back. “What’s happening to this village? It seems like everyone is quitting their job, moving away, or getting sick.”

Remarkable how humans could notice the problems happening without linking them together. Even Muroi-san, who was perhaps the most erudite and intelligent person in Sotoba, who wrote with such intuitive wisdom about the perils of his home village, hadn’t grasped the complete picture. 

“Take care of yourself.” Sunako waved at the woman. “It sounds like Sotoba really needs people like you right now.”

“How sweet of you to say so. Well, I’ll do my best.” The woman walked away from the front door, distracted from Yuzuki-san and his problems. 

Sunako’s next move was to call Tatsumi. He helped her transport the dead Yuzuki back to Yamairi. Yes, the man would rise. Tatsumi’s jinrou nose was never wrong. 

Yuzuki-san cowered away from Sunako, Tatsumi, and their offering. One of the former resident officer’s children lay before him. “I won’t do it! I can’t!”

“Of course you can, Yuzuki-san.” Tatsumi offered the former librarian a pleasant smile. “If you want to survive, you will.”

“Besides you’ve always wanted to, haven’t you, Yuzuki-san?” Sunako knelt before him, looming over the feverishly breathing child. He’d been drained and weakened before being brought here. “You’ve always longed for something like this, only you wouldn’t allow yourself to think about it. You feared what it might make you.” 

“No, I didn’t.” Yuzuki covered his face with his hands. “I thought Munetaka-kun’s smile was sweet, that’s all. That his younger brother had an oddly sensual mouth.” He peeked through his fingers at Sunako. “Yes, you looked cute, but is it so strange to think a little girl such as yourself is cute? I’m not like that!”

“Now you can be something different.” Sunako offered the same smile to Yuzuki-san she’d offered the woman who came to his door. “There’s a word for what you are, for what we are, Yuzuki-san.” She allowed her fang to show. “Vampire.”

It wasn’t her favourite word, but it roused the former librarian like a magic spell. 

He lunged at the child, crushing him to his chest in a parody of an embrace. It was like a father holding his child. It brought back memories of Sunako’s own father, enfolding her in his arms while the sunlight shone on both of them. 

Only this place was dark and without sun. A moment later, Yuzuki-san opened his mouth, exposing sharp fangs, They sank into the child’s flesh. 

Yes, hadn’t it been like that? When that man showed up at her bedside, only to show his teeth, like a monster in a fairytale? Had she been scared?

Takami’s child was too weak, too dazed. He wouldn’t feel a thing. 

Sunako closed her ears. The sucking sound, the movement of Yuzuki-san’s lips were loud in the basement. 

Most okiagari got full, even with a weakened victim. Yuzuki-san kept drinking. 

Sunako opened her eyes to see Yuzuki-san, smiling up at her, holding the weakened body in his arms. 

“Thank you, ojou-chan.” He allowed his tongue to dart out and moisten his lips. “You’re absolutely right. I am a vampire or an okiagari. I mustn’t flinch.”

“You’re right, but you’re also now under Sunako-sama’s protection as one of her people.” Tatsumi moved between the tiny vampire and the newly risen. His eyes shifted to a bloody purple as they often did when he was angry. “She hates being called ojou-chan or anything -chan.”

“Yes, I do. Please don’t do it again, Yuzuki-san.” Sunako smiled at the former librarian, yet allowed her eyes to blacken. “I wish to get along with my kind in Sotoba. I’d hate to show my more…unpleasant side.” 

The threat worked. Yuzuki-san shrank back, cowed once more before the creature who’d stolen his life. 

“You’ve done very well, Yuzuki-san.” Time to put on a pleasant face once more. After all, the former librarian had managed to make his first kill right when he’d risen. 

Yasuyuki hadn’t done well at all, crying and refusing to kill at first. He’d had to be imprisoned before hunger at last got the better of him.   
“This means you’re free to go, to walk around in the night.” Sunako rose to her feet, tossing back a full lock of plum colored hair. “Free to seek out whatever meals you wish.” 

“Whatever meals I wish?” The suggestion didn’t horrify Yuzuki-san. If anything, his eyes darkened with delight. “Munetaka-kun…no, I’ll save him for last. He’s got a son…and a brother.”

Sunako backed away, feeling a need for fresh air. This was perfectly natural for one of the Risen, to wish to return to those who’d had a hold over them in life. To crave their lives in turn. 

Why did she feel disturbed? Almost repulsed? 

“Of course!” Tatsumi said with a cheerful smile, all menace gone. “Good to see you adjusting, Yuzuki-san.” 

The jinrou turned to follow Sunako out of the basement. “It is good, isn’t it?” he muttered to his mistress. “Or do you want me to put him down?”

“For what? Acting on his urges? What was a crime as a human may help us adjust to what we are.” Sunako pressed a hand to her forehead. “Not everyone who rises is as ready as Yuzuki-san to murder his acquaintances. We need to prepare for that.”

“Like Yasuyuki.” As always, Tatsumi seemed to comprehend instantly what was troubling her and be willing to act on it. “Yoshie and I will form a unit to bring back prey from the big cities. This way, the newly risen don’t have start with the villagers of Sotoba.” Tatasumi glanced up at the moonlight gleaming on the staircase from above. “Megumi-kun might be quite useful as a member of his unit.”

“This sounds like an excellent idea. Offer a young okiagari a glass of bood as well as a victim.” Sunako shivered. “No need to be cruel, when someone has just awoken to find themselves dead. It’s hard enough.”

“You’re very kind, Sunako-sama. Perhaps too kind.” Tatsumi gazed at her, eyes softening to something cloudy and sorrowful. “May I make a suggestion? Offer them the glass or the victim. If they take the victim, they get to go free. If they choose the glass, keep them in the basement. Let them get a taste of the hunger which accompanies scruples.” Tatsumi sniffed the air. “It’s similar to what you’re already doing. I want to make sure it’s in every local okiagari’s interest not to expose you when they walk among the living.”

“You’re paranoid, Tatsumi, but perhaps you’re right to be.” Sunako lowered her head. “Agreed.”

“Remember, Sunako-sama, these villagers aren’t your allies until they’ve got a reason to be.” The jinrou gazed down at his undead mistress. “Give them every reason to join us.”

“I will.” Sunako reached out to touch Tatsumi’s hand. “This will work, Tatsumi. Believe in us.”  
Tatsumi smiled back, but his blue eyes were troubled. Clearly he still had doubts. 

Sunako would just have to prove them wrong and she would. All she needed was a little time.

They would have their okiagari village. All of them, including Tatsumi. 

She would not fail.


End file.
